sneed12

A couple of months ago I ordered myself a Damasko DC82 as a promotion gift to myself:

It's one of the few mechanical center minutes chronographs available today. I had it fitted with orange chrono hands and an 1-11 hours bezel instead of countdown minutes. 

I'm very happy with it, but life's funny and I got fired less than 3 weeks after I got promoted (not fired-fired but "it's time for you to find a new firm, let's figure out a transition plan" fired). Just signed an the offer for the next job today, and have this coming in 

I've been on a bit of a Seiko kick lately, have bought 3 in the last 3 weeks. Unemployment is clearly something I'm not very good at

I have a several spares in the parts box left over from builds. I can't guarantee it will fit, but you can have for free plus cost of shipping.

I don't recall the exact year, but the 42mm 5th gen Planet Ocean rep (of the 2500 series Omega) came out ten-ish years ago.

Part number is 086 ST 0115

If that's a 5th gen 42mm PO (and it looks like it is) the gen part will fit

How are you thinking you will shave the rehaut? From the front of the case?

I'm struggling to understand how you will achieve a shallower rehaut depth while maintaining the overall geometry of the case. Feels like shaving the front will just lower the crystal a bit; milling the inside will throw off the stem height.

Posted on the other forum, but figured I'd share here also.

<February>

So years ago I built a 16710 with an ETA CHS movement:

https://www.repgeek.com/rolex/172833-chs-noob-gen-bezel-construction-16710-gmt.html

I wore it for years, and liked it, but eventually for some reason I cannot remember I parted it out and used most of the parts for another build. Ended up with the movement sitting in a parts drawer.

I've also, over the years, built 1675s on cartel cases:

https://www.repgeek.com/rolex/178000-cartel-1675-converted-low-beat.html
https://www.repgeek.com/rolex/205489-1675-el-cornino-build.html

Again, for whatever reason I've ended up selling these on. So I haven't had a Pepsi bezel watch in my collection for a couple of years.

I got to thinking a few years ago that it would be fun to make a "birth year" watch -- a Rolex rep that could have been produced in the year I was born. After some thought I decided to do a 16750 build. The 16750 case is identical to the late 1675s, but the movement is a high-beat CHS GMT movement (in other words, the hour hand is on the bottom and GMT hand sits above it in the stack, like the 3185). It does not have jumping hour hand but does have quickset date. Since the ETA based CHS movement I had lying around matches that functionality, I thought that would be a good fit.

I also wanted a matte dial, so I ordered a cartel rep 1675 (same base I used for my last two 1675 builds). But this time around, I decided I wasn't satisfied with the 1680-based case. I decided to use just the dial for this build. I had no idea where I was going to source an acceptable case, so I ended up with yet another box of parts sitting in a drawer for years pretending to be a watch build project.

Fast forward to this year, I start seeing yodog builds featured in the forum (I've not been active much lately, so maybe this is old news, but these cases weren't available back in 2012 when I was doind a lot more modding). I reach out to yodog and he graciously offers to source a case for me.

Finally I'm in position to do this build. What I'm after is a watch that could hypothetically have been sold by Rolex in 1981 when I was born -- not that it necessarily was a configuration available from the factory, but that these were gen parts in production at the time. So I'm going to use a 1675 case which, other than engravings, should be identical to the correct 16750 case I'm after. Using Clark's 1675 bezel assembly since yodog only provided midcase, caseback, and crown. Matte dial. I've always liked silver open 6/9 datewheels, so using a polexpete DWO. 

I start with his case:

It looks great, and it has the slim profile and short rehaut that the cartel case can never get right. Some tool marks (and he said he cleaned it up a bit already) that I'll clean up later, I'm anxious to put this together and see how it looks.

I dig the old movement out of a drawer and make sure it's still running right (which, PS, this one has been running like a champ for 7+ years now)

Pull the cartel dial and test fit into the case.

Well, it doesn't fit. Too big. Needs to be reduced in diameter in order to fit the case correctly. So, I set up my poor man's watch lathe aka Dremel:

I slowly rotate the dial and file down the edge until it sits in the case properly. Interestingly, I actually think it looks better with a smaller dial opening, in the cartel case the dial opening went beyond the minute markings and made the dial look too small for the case (look at one of my old 1675 threads). Here it looks like it fits properly.

Once the dial is the right size, I reinstall on the movement, put the hands back on, and fit into the case. Fits like a glove and the stem height is, miraculously, almost perfect.

As long as I've got my lathe set up, let me give a light polish to the bezel ring (they come from Gary bead-blasted)

and put it all together.

Was not sure what to do about a bracelet, so first tried a Speedbird NATO which I quite liked

but decided I ultimately wanted a bracelet. Dug up a rep rivet that fits ok

And a shot in its natural environment today, on an airplane

<October>

Updated with Yuki dial and a rep 93150, 580 endlinks and a GMT/explorer fliplock clasp (i.e., without diver's extension).

Ended up sacrificing some no-name ETA dial to use as the dial feet / spacer / plate for the Yuki dial, since obviously the feet didn't fit. I bored out the center hole to make room for the hour hand wheel and drilled out the date window. Bit of a bonus was that the hour hand wheel sits a little higher than the date disc + overlay, so I was able to keep everything nice and tight under the dial. Clipped the Yuki dial feet and used glue to attach, the whole thing is bombproof now.

Check out that beautiful open 6

I just swapped on a T-38, will post up some pics maybe tomorrow.

Let me know what you find, I've been looking for 5 years

Nope. Other than the fact that there's less empty dial real estate, there's no reason why they'd be any different.

You can put a date window at 6 o'clock on an ETA 7750 with no modifications at all, it just ends up in the hours totalizer subdial. You can put one at 4:30. You can put one at 9 if you want to, although it would be stupid looking and the running seconds would run over the window for ~20 seconds out of every minute. No mods to the movement are required.

On 3/11/2016 at 11:43 AM, tframo said:

What are your guys thoughts on this watch?   I like the looks of the dial and have read some pretty good  reviews on the web but I'm a little worried about the movement modification done to allow it to have the date at 6

The only "modification" generally required for date at 6 is to print the numbers in a different orientation, and cut the date window into the dial in a different place. The date disc is a circle, it's there under the dial already. 99.9% of movements that come in variants with date at 3, 4:30, 6, 9, whatever are identical except for the printing on the date disc.

If you are looking at the refinished 16750 dial on ebay right now, it means "garbage"...

I was also born in 1981, and I started thinking about this a few weeks ago -- I think I'm going to go 16750.

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/hh568/devildog267/16750-2_zpszaoyqgo6.jpg

http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/hh568/devildog267/16750-1_zpsskia9dbe.jpg

Best of all worlds in some ways, I can use the open 6 datewheel, I can use a CHS ETA movement without having to drop $1k on building another 3185, and I get the lovely acrylic crystal. I'm thinking cartel 1655 explorer case. Still haven't found a source for a dial unfortunately.

There isn't a way to do it without cutting the feet, if you retain the ETA movement. But now that rep 3185 movements are available...

Working on a friend's watch, and dripped a tiny bit of glue on the date disc... hopeful that I can get it off with some care and acetone, but just in case would like to source a date disc. Replacement movements are only $25 so may not be possible to get parts sadly, but here's hoping someone has one in their box

Well, got everything back (the movement is beautiful, thanks misiekped) and assembled the movement/dial/hands. Everything fits into the case, but when assembled the stem hole is about .5mm too low. I removed the tube (which broke instantly, perfect opportunity to throw away the rep part and put in a gen-spec tube) and I guess I'll start drilling out the hole. Plan right now is to reposition the tube and see how it looks.

Still interested in finding a different mid-case that will take the 3135/3185 without modification... if the 16610 had the same CG configuration as the 116710 I'd be using a TC midcase right now!

I had a similar problem, years ago

https://rwg.cc/topic/156977-trouble-fitting-a-t21-to-a-dw-case

No luck over at RG so I thought I'd ask here.

I am planning to do a build with a 3185-movement. Main challenge is going to be sourcing a midcase (everything else can be fixed with money!). I've got two of the old Noob Explorer II cases in the parts bin (which were, by far, the best rep 16570/16710 cases ever made) but they have ETA stem height. Obviously I could drill out the tube hole and reposition with JB Weld, like what polexpete did for his Breitling build or what the AP builders do when they switch from a 7750 based case to a franken with 2982+DD movement. Any other options? Sources for a midcase that would work, and if so, what's the pricing like?

Took a while to settle, but in the end got it regulated to within a few seconds / day

Possibly -- not sure if they would fit

Note that the 2840 has a nylon pallet fork and escape wheel...

Yes and no -- simple enough to obtain off a 2846, and you can swap the 2824 parts back onto the 2846 to create what is effectively a 2836 with 2846 markings... but you still need to source a 2846 from somewhere.

Here's the thread

https://rwg.cc/topic/154653-ap-diver-with-low-beat-2824-success

Another option is to swap in a 2846 balance wheel, escape wheel and pallet fork -- these parts all drop in and you end up with a low beat 2824. I did this years ago on my AP diver. It's a straightforward swap. I'll see if I can dig up the thread.

You want one of the ones Polex Pete had printed

Link to sale thread in the parts forum

If he is out I probably have a spare in my parts box, but please try to buy from him first -- he arranged the group buy and took the risk of paying for all of these up front, so he deserves the chance to recoup his investment

Yeah, that's what I usually do. However, I read on here somewhere that someone had drilled holes in the ETA mainplate so they could use a gen dial, so I was hoping whoever that was would answer in this thread...

For a modern 3135 dial and a 28xx ETA movement, it is not possible. One of the feet would go through the balance wheel. Other dial variants might have different dial feet positions.

Are all eta 2846's like this with a recessed pinion?

Impossible to install seconds hand without touching the minute.

 

As others have pointed out, there are a number of different factory configurations. It's only "recessed" if you install a tall hour wheel and cannon pinion. There are 2836s with this configuration as well, not all (or even most) 2836s are H4s.

I go the other way -- you spent ~$200 on a watch, why spend another ~$150 on servicing it proactively? Just wear it and deal with any potential problems when they happen.

The 2840 does not have holes drilled for case clamps. You can see it quite clearly in the pic above. You either have to use a movement holder with integral case clamps or glue everything together.

Another upgrade would be to a better bezel insert. WatchNY on Ebay. Look at the genuine and then the DW numbers especially 110. Spacing is wrong on DW.  That configuration is my favorite Daytona though. I had one of those, unfortunately it was one of the watches that MD2020 confiscated!! I hope that little [censored] enjoyed the dope he probably bough from selling our watches!!

I remember selling you that movement. A shame, it was a quite nice Swiss 7750.